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Oh, Those Pesky Looters. Let’s Just Shoot Them

Two local politicians in Peachtree City, Georgia, have decided that using deadly force against looters is a good idea. Never mind that smoke and flash grenades, and water hoses are very effective, or that non-lethal projectiles are readily available and also very effective. Never mind that killing another human being for stealing and breaking things is completely over the top.

One of the politicians, Mr. Terry Garlock, is a city councilman and a former captain in the local Police Department. The other, Mr. Terry Ernst, is the brother in law of Joni Ernst, the junior Senator from Iowa, who’s had plenty of negative run-ins with the press. The “Twin Terrys” penned an article in the local rag entitled, “Authorize Police to Shoot Looters.”

In this article, one can find the usual replacements for the “N-Word” that are currently being enjoyed by the bigots-at-large. Thugs, lowlifes, etc. That we’ve come to expect this is troubling, on it’s own, but when you also add the new talking points of how all the racial strife in the country is Obama’s fault, it becomes clearly obvious that the only natural conclusion these people can come up with is to just shoot them all dead.

The Twin Terrys write:

“President Obama and now-former Attorney General Eric Holder have been fanning the flames of racial division for a long time while repeatedly throwing police under the bus. Their irresponsible public presumption of police guilt has given encouragement to the criminal element, seemingly granting the aggrieved class an entitlement to disrupt the peace, all while delivering a severe blow to police morale nationwide.”

Outside of being completely wrong, rhetoric like this belongs in the realm of the tin-foil-hat-wearing realm of the conspiracy theorist. Obama repeatedly makes statements in support of law enforcement, including:

But I digress…

Regarding the call for murder, the two write:

“Televised images of thugs being arrested, or shot dead while resisting, would go a long way in putting a stop to this uncivilized behavior. It is worth noting we don’t care whether the looters are black, white, yellow or brown, the remedy remains the same.The word would spread like wildfire the police mean business, you can’t get away with this stuff any more while police stand around and watch, and it would stop. Dead looters on TV news would spread mortal fear in the hearts of opportunists causing the trouble, and would likely stop that behavior cold.”

Dead looters on TV… How very nice.

They further comment:

“Our country needs a national law giving the governor of every state the authority to approve lethal force by law enforcement and the National Guard to stop looters and arsonists…”

Oh, and for good measure, how about throwing in a little misogyny by insinuating the women are weaker and somehow unable to keep things in order or make sound decisions? Yeah, they did that. To wit:

“But it is time for the Daddy-State to step in where the Mommy-State has failed.”

Listen, I totally and completely support law enforcement. There are cops in my family, and several friends of mine are on the force. We need the police. The vast majority of police officers are good people, who obey the laws they enforce, interact with the community in an exemplary fashion, and have to deal with all sorts of crap all day long, including not knowing if they will be around to punch out at the end of the shift.

That so many people cannot understand that the protests are not against cops, but against those cops who break the law and commit crimes like assault and homicide, and sometimes do so without consequence. We, as a society, disbar lawyers who break the law. That doesn’t mean all lawyers are crooks. We take away licenses and physicians when they do harm to their patients. That doesn’t mean that all doctors are guilty. The same should go for police officers. If they break the law, they should suffer the consequences. This is what those who protest want.

I am not condoning looting, burning down structures, damaging public vehicles and equipment, etc. Those who commit these crimes should be punished to the full extend of the law. But that extend does not include shooting them dead, and to even suggest it is not only morally repugnant, but a serious breach of ethics, as well.

Just another example of the current racist, bigoted, discriminatory and misogynist mindset that seems to pervade the Conservative movement, of whom are consistently attempting to oppress and suppress non-white people, non-straight people, non-Christian people, people with vaginas, etc…

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